Intelligent Women Intimidate the S–t Out of Men, and This Is Why

There may be some method to the madness after all.

Smart women are sexy AF, but according to a recent study, they’re absolutely terrifying and send men running away.

Ask most (keyword: most) dudes about what they want in a woman, and one of the first things they’ll tell you is she has to be intelligent. You know: be able to hold a conversation, do basic math, and know that Bernie Sanders is a presidential candidate and not the Colts’ quarterback.

A study published in Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin conducted by a team of researchers at the University of Buffalo, California Lutheran University, and the University of Texas found men would rather be with someone who isn’t as smart as them. Does it give their masculinity a run for its money? Is it because they want to be able to hold the reigns?

The study consisted of three parts. In the first, the men were given a hypothetical situation of a woman scoring either better or worse than them on a test.

Each rated how romantically desirable the woman seemed and then filled out a survey to find out what their typical male stereotype would be. Men were told how the woman scored, and the results, as you’d like to expect, showed they were more interested in the women who scored higher, because they seemed more intelligent.

Part two was when things got a little more interesting. Instead of a hypothetical woman, the men were told they would take a test and then meet a woman afterwards. Again, this woman either scored lower or higher than them on the same exam. Afterwards, they were asked to state their initial impression: attractiveness and desirability.

This is the game-changer. The men rated the more intelligent woman as less attractive and were more reluctant to exchange personal information with her. When they knew her intelligence was superior to theirs, they were less interested.

Ladies, the third part may send you screaming “OH NO HE DIDN’T!”

Men and women were tested in the same room, scores were read aloud, and the men were directed to pull their chairs closer to the women they were paired up with. The researchers observed that the men who scored lower than their female partner didn’t pull their chairs as close to those who scored higher.

They were also asked to rate their stereotypical male characteristics again, and this time, many of them answered as less masculine because the woman next to them had scored higher.

The study concluded that not all men feel this way, but the presence of an intelligent woman is enough to make a man feel inferior.

Additionally, men say they are looking for something but then don’t really mean it. As if women didn’t have enough to worry about, we now have to be careful of scaring men away due to being too intelligent.

As strong, intelligent, and powerful women, we should never dumb ourselves down for a man. Whether he’s Leonardo DiCaprio or a Wall Street billionaire, chaining ourselves for any man should be completely out of the question. We are all independently unique and intelligent on our own level and when we give a man the chance to realize that they should feel empowered by it, not dumbed down.

If intelligence turns him away, then it’s more proof men actually are the weaker sex.